Comedian Ivan Aristeguieta loves the balance that comes with Australian life.
The Venezuelan-born comedian, who has recently become an Australian citizen, calls this very relaxed way of life, the Aussie yin yang.
And it's just one of the things he explores in his upcoming show, Citizen.
"It's a bit about my journey of how much I've become Australia in the last 11 years and how I have adopted the philosophy of Australia, the balance in Australia," Aristeguieta says.
"Everything in Australia is about balance. It's like the, 'Yeah, nah'.
"There is no yeah in this life, without a little bit of nah. There's no nah without a little bit of yeah."
Of course, after 11 years of living in Australia, that's not the only thing the comedian has observed; something, he says, comes in handy with his career.
While other international comedians are making "observations" about Vegemite and how much we like our beer, Aristeguieta is here to tell audiences just how Aussie they are. (As Australians, we like to hear about ourselves, according to the comedian).
"I've learned that the best day to take a nap is to watch the cricket on Boxing Day. That is the best nap you can take," Aristeguieta says.
"The nap is the best thing but I think cricket is the best sport to take a nap to. You can be taking your nap and then after a while you open your eyes and you listen to the commentators talking about the birds on the grass. And you can go back to sleep."
Being a comedian, Aristeguieta has already had a chance to see a fair chunk of the country.
And having been to Canberra various times, he's made sure to take the right of passage many Australians go through during school and that's to visit Parliament House. The most memorable part of this was visiting the Lego model on display at the time.
But that's not to say Canberra hasn't played a role in the comedian's journey to becoming an Aussie.
In fact, of all of the institutions in the capital, it was Floriade that helped Aristeguieta the most.
"I did a show at Floriade. It was beautiful. I loved it," he says.
"But it was also the day that I learnt that the phrase 'tall poppy syndrome' is about flowers and not puppies.
"All that time I thought it was about puppies. I thought in Australia you had a box of puppies, like labrador puppies, and if the puppy stuck its head out it would get its head cut off. Just so the other puppies learned the lesson that you're not supposed to stand above the rest."
Unfortunately, this mistake didn't do much for Australia's reputation among Aristeguieta's friends and family.
That being said, Australians have been telling the rest of the world about drop bears for decades. Perhaps Aristeguieta telling others about this mythical puppy box just proves how Australian he now is.
- Ivan Aristeguieta is performing for Comedy ACT at the Australian National University on July 15. For tickets go to comedyact.com.au.
